This technique will find players who succeeded in their role with their team. It will select players who succeeded in easier roles where they played against lesser competition and it will select star players who played tougher roles and still succeeded. There is no attempt to correct for quality of teammates or opposition. It is a valid method to find players who succeeded in their roles with their teams and compare between teams.

Here are the top 20 players in 2010/11 by adjusted +/-:

2010/11 Top 20 Adjusted +/- Ratings

Rank

Player

Team

Adj +/-

1

Toni Lydman

Ana

+33.6

2

David Backes

StL

+30.6

3

Anze Kopitar

LA

+23.8

3

Brian Campbell

Chi

+23.8

5

Kevin Bieksa

Van

+21.8

6

Zdeno Chara

Bos

+21.4

7

Matt Carle

Phi

+21.0

7

Andrej Meszaros

Phi

+21.0

9

Jonathan Toews

Chi

+20.8

10

Daniel Sedin

Van

+19.8

11

Lubomir Visnovsky

Ana

+19.6

11

Franz Nielsen

NYI

+19.6

11

Michael Grabner

NYI

+19.6

14

Alexander Ovechkin

Was

+19.0

14

Nicklas Backstrom

Was

+19.0

16

Dan Hamhius

Van

+18.8

16

Mikael Grabovski

Tor

+18.8

18

Adam McQuaid

Bos

+18.4

19

Jeff Carter

Phi

+18.0

19

Derek MacKenzie

CBJ

+18.0

Toni Lydman leads the league. At one point during the season I wrote about Lydman’s +/- rating. Lydman did very well in his role. David Backes of the St Louis Blues is slightly behind him. He was an overlooked Selke candidate. The two of them are well above any other players.

Some very good players are represented here in Zdeno Chara, Daniel Sedin, Alexander Ovechkin and Jonathan Toews. There are underrated defensive stars in Franz Nielsen, Adam McQuaid and Derek MacKenzie here. This is a group of players who succeeded in their roles last season.

I think it is informative to look at some of the top players on this list to see the potential biases in their ratings and how well their 2010/11 really was. I will do this in the future.